Anton van Helden, Te Papa’s marine mammal scientist, was assisted by the kids and his four specially equipped assistants (complete with dolphin dorsal fins). We divided everyone up into four teams – the sperm whales, humpback whales, killer whales, and the blue whales.

The kids found out what to do if they ever come across a whale stranded on a beach. We used “Philippa”- Anton’s special dolphin model -to practise on.

Each whale team also had to discover what their whale sounds like and then sing their whale song. The blue whales made low, rumbly noises and the sperm whales made heaps of clicks. The killer whales gave a lot of high pitched squeaks, and the humpbacks sounded just like Dory, when she sings “whale” in the movie Finding Nemo….

At the end of the evening we all got together to give a whale concert, conducted by Anton.

We’re thinking of posting the video of our whale song on YouTube! Well, thinking about it …

If you’d like to be part of special events like this at Te Papa, then join Friends of Te Papa.